Creativity · MCP — server

MCP YouTube Server

The MCP YouTube Server is a community-maintained Model Context Protocol server that wraps the YouTube Data API plus transcript scraping. It lets an LLM client search for videos, pull captions for summarization, and inspect channel or playlist metadata without leaving the chat window.

MCP facts

Kind: server
Ecosystem: anthropic-mcp
Language: TypeScript / Node.js
Transports: stdio

Capabilities

Tools: search_videos, get_transcript, get_video_metadata, list_channel_videos
Resources: youtube://video/{id} URIs carrying transcript + title
Auth: YOUTUBE_API_KEY env var for Data API access

Install

npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-youtube

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-youtube"],
      "env": { "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "AIza..." }
    }
  }
}

Frequently asked questions

Is this server official?

No — YouTube has no first-party MCP server. Use a community implementation from the MCP servers index.

Which videos have transcripts?

Most public videos with captions enabled. Transcript calls fail for private, age-restricted, or caption-disabled videos.

Does this use API quota?

Yes. YouTube Data API v3 enforces daily quota. Cache transcript results and avoid repeated full-channel scans.

Sources

YouTube Data API v3 — accessed 2026-04-20
MCP community servers — accessed 2026-04-20